Not all gloom, crime stats show

Amidst the unrelenting din of dire financial news, it is refreshing to be reminded that not all is amiss, or headed that way, in Connecticut.

The state’s budget-making stalemate costs Connecticut at least $1 million a day in missed revenue and is lurching toward an Oct. 1 cliff of even nastier portent.

As bad as the fiscal situation certainly is, the most recent figures from the FBI show a state that is growing increasingly safe, despite a national trend in the other direction.

Not surprisingly, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy is taking credit for the subsiding crime statistics, including the fewest number of murders in the state since 1969.

And why not? He, like any chief elected official, takes the heat for anything that goes wrong.

According to an FBI report analysis of crime stats from 2016, murders and manslaughters in Connecticut dropped by 33 percent from 2015 to 2016, despite that violent crime — rape, murder, robbery and aggravated assault — were up 4.1 percent nationwide, the second consecutive year of increase..

Among the numbers presented in what’s called the 2016 FBI Uniform Crime Statistics report, an annual a compilation of information reported to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program by more than 16,000 law enforcement agencies nationwide, were these: 78 murders and non-negligent manslaughters took place in Connecticut in 2016, a significant decrease from 2015 when there were 116. Nationwide, those categories were up 8.6 percent..

Even though the state has been tossed for much of the governor’s tenure on financial tempest, Malloy has been able to keep his eye on the criminal justice ball, pushing for various reforms that may now in fact be paying off.

Reforms in prisons that are intended to accentuate the “correction” aspect of incarceration over the “punishment” aspect have been among Malloy’s hallmarks, as are the “Second Chance Society” bills he helped push through that relax restrictions on nonviolent offenders.

The state has therefore been able to pour more resources into education and the social services that can be effective in moving potential criminals in different directions.

Malloy is not saying this was a one-man accomplishment. The people who work where the rubber meets the road — the law enforcement officials, judicial branch workers, social workers, teachers, and so on —are the ones who implement the new approach.

What the report shows is that despite a trend of national increase, the work that’s under way in Connecticut is effective and worthwhile.

Michael Lawlor, the state’s Undersecretary for Criminal Justice Policy and Planning, has been the tip of Malloy’s spear.

Lawlor contends that the crime rate — those tracked by the FBI — are down 18 percent in total. Violent crime, he says, is down 20 percent.

It’s important for us to recognize that while the very serious problem of fiscal stability is sapping everyone’s attention and patience, improvements in other areas of life are still moving forward.

The most recent figures from the FBI show a state that is growing increasingly safe, despite a national trend in the other direction.